A Guide to Windshield Poop Analysis

Every day, another wet-behind-the-spectacles author sends us his fresh new opus...hoping, no doubt, that we will shamelessly promote it so he can join John Grisham in early retirement in Barbados.

Recent arrivals here at Car Talk Plaza include "A Bibliography of Edsel Literature," "Rebuild MAP Sensors for Fun and Profit" and "How I Loved My Miata to Death." With titles like that, you can appreciate why we immediately pass them off to Zuzu for her reading, retrieving...and eating pleasure.

But every now and then, a tome of such great import crosses our threshold that we have no choice but to share it with you. Such was the case with Burton Silver's "What Bird Did That? A Driver's Guide to Some Common Birds of North America." Now, this is fine literature!

"What Bird Did That" is all about identifying those disgusting blotches on your windshield. As you might imagine, this is not the first time we have broached this weighty topic on Car Talk. Last year we theorized why some cars have the fecal misfortune of getting pooped on more than others. We weren't alone in pondering this, uh, moving subject...hundreds of you had your own insights on the topic.

So...do you think you know your poop?

Then, once we've got you suitably humbled with your score, you can get the lowdown from a true master of stuff-that-falls-out-of-the-sky--"What Bird Did That?" author Burton Silver.